Archidale
When Beth Saunders began investigating the mysterious disappearance of his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather Thomas Maness, she didn’t know the search might lead her.
If anywhere.
About thirty years later, Archidael genealogist and former journalist have a story that finally discovers the outstanding truth of the facts that actually happened in Mannis nearly 150 years ago. She unveils the unlikely story in her new book, The Search for Thomas Mans.
“This guy deserves a book,” Sanders recalls. “Who else will tell this story?”
Saunders, the general mobilization of Archdale-Trination news, former writer, inherited the mystery in the 1990s when she was discussing family lineage with her grandparents. When they mentioned that her great-great-grandfather, Thomas Maness, went to look for a job around 1875 and never returned home, she was interested – as a genealogist, she was formally challenged.
“I think it would be great if I could solve this mystery, but I’m the fourth generation,” Sanders said.
“When… (Thomas’) son was 20, he went to Virginia to find him-that was where he went to find a job-but no one knew anything.
The story is that Thomas was a skilled lumberjack who apparently moved from town to town, employed manual labor, and found himself in a neighborhood near the Line of Randolph and Guildford County in 1874. He met a young girl, 14-year-old Pandora Wall, and married her in June. Within a year, Pandora became pregnant, but before her birth, her imminent father.
“There are few jobs, so a lot of people will work on the railroad and mines,” Sanders explained. “Thomas said he was going to Betha Zinc Mining in Virginia, but he never came home. They never heard from him again.”
Passed from generation to generation, descendants are confused by the disappearance of young people: Did he die in some accident, mining or otherwise? Did he encounter a foul game? Or did he just decide to start a new life in a new place?
Saunders joined the searcher’s successor in the early 1990s, but was lucky early on. It was Thomas who was obviously dead by then, who teased his great-granddaughter in a hide-and-seek genealogy game.
“I’m always looking for other family lines,” Sanders said. “I’ll look and feel very frustrated.”
Finally, an archival clue – old-fashioned marriage record – brought her to Moore County, where an elderly genealogist and historian told her some stories about his cousin Swain Maness, a colorful character that is said to have five wives scattered in North Carolina.
Sanders began to doubt Sway Menes, and Thomas Maness might be the same person. There are other clues, but two people caught her attention in particular – Swain Maness, reportedly a tall man, said to be “the best lumberjack around”, which matches Thomas.
Without giving too much of Sanders’ story, we simply tell you that, thanks to some genealogical detective work and confirmed DNA testing, Sanders finally proved in 2012 that Swain and Thomas were one and the same. The good news comes from FamilyTreedna’s email.
“I was alone (when the email arrived), but I had to do a dance and whoop.” “I finally found him and solved the mystery.”
But, not everything Sanders has heard about Thomas/Svoin is true. For example, he really doesn’t have five wives.
He has seven.
“They all live at the same time, but they don’t know,” Sanders said. “And they’re passed down from generation to generation – he’s been marrying young women and walking around.”
The wife lives in Archdale, Moore County (two live here), Chatham County, Anson County, Virginia and Alabama.
It was only a year or two after Sanders decided to confirm in a book that Sanders decided to document his fascinating story (and her equally compelling search).
“I have to tell his story,” she said. “I just know I have to tell it.”
Want to go? Author Beth Saunders will sign a copy of her book Searching for Thomas Maness at Scuppernong Books, 304 S. Elm St., Greensboro at 6 p.m. {RESSER_CONTENT_UUID} B9DDF53C-BE0D-45F0-A2DB-CE0513F6354C {/RELESS_CONTENT_UUID}
